Terry fabric having high-low pile

ABSTRACT

A woven terry fabric having on each side thereof a predetermined pattern of clearly defined high and low pile areas and wherein those terry yarns forming the low pile areas have pile loops of a length about as long as the height of the high pile areas but are self-restrained or disposed to lie at an incline relative to the base and form the low pile areas.

United States Patent Hager 1March 20, 1973 TERRY FABRIC HAVING HIGH-LOW 2,997,074 8/1961 Law ..139/396 PILE 3,030,691 4/1962 Law ..l39/396 x 3,357,075 12 1967 La ..28 72 P [75] Invent: Grays" Rage" Fleldale, 2,932,327 4/1960 Fra i iwirth 139 /3196 [73] Assigneez Fieidcres, M'fli Inc" Eden," NC. 1,925,459 9/1933 Parker etal. ..l39/396 [22] Filed: Dec. 30, 19.71 I FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS [21] App]. No.: 213,883 816,850 '5/1937 France ..l39/39l Primary Examiner-James Kee Chi [52] US. Cl ..l39/396,2 Atmmey Dona1d M. Seltzer et a]. [51] Int. Cl. ..D03d 27/08, D060 23/00 [58] Field of Search .....139/396, 391; 28/72 P, 76 P; [57] ABSTRACT 6 /6 69 A woven terry fabric having on each side thereof a predetermined pattern of clearly defined high and low References Cited pile areas and wherein those terry yarns forming the I low pile areas have pile loops of a length about as long UNITED STATES PATENTS as the height of the high pile areas but are self- 3,422,5'l2 1/1969 Law ..26/l6 restrained or disposed to lie at an incline relative to 2,607,042 8/1952 Schloss ..26/69 R the base and form the low pile areas. 2,203,450 6/1940 Wright ..26/69 R 1,766,805 6/1930 5 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures Wakefield 139/396 Ema Ma 14o; 14 f i e a i 1o'\\ 14. 0 I I Mam 21m 1: 11 .1 n l I W1 V-lcL PATENTEU MAR 2 0 I975 TERRY FABRIC HAVING HIGH-LOW PILE As is well known, most conventional terry fabrics are formed of cotton yarns, because cotton is a readily available, relatively inexpensive and highly absorbent textile fiber. Some terry fabrics may include fibers other than cotton in the woven base, but the fibers used in the base are not of particular concern in this invention. Various types of terry fabrics having terry pile of varying heights are also known. In some instances, the varying heights of pile are effected by controlling the terry yarns during weaving. In other instances, some of the terry yarns have been formed of shrinkable, synthetic fibers blended with cellulosic fibers, such as cotton, so as to increase the shrinkability thereof relative to other cellulosic terry yarns in the fabric for obtaining various high-low terry pattern effects. Such shrinkable terry yarns are relatively expensive, and generally, the synthetic fibers thereof are hydrophobic so that the shrinkable terry yarns do not absorb moisture as effectively as the all-cellulosic terry yarns.

It is an object of this invention to provide a woven highly absorbent, highlow terry fabric, particularly useful for towels, which is so constructed that the terry pile yarns thereof may be formed entirely of hydrophili c cellulosic fibers and which is also so constructed as to eliminate the need for blending any highly shrinkable fibers with cellulosic fibers, or plying highly shrinkable strands with low-shrink cellulosic strands, and to eliminate the need for initially weaving the terry fabric with terry loops of varying heights in order to form the high-low terry fabric.

More specifically, it is an object of this invention to provide a woven terry fabric having a base and terry pile yarns arranged in a predetermined pattern thereon to provide a high-low pile effect, and wherein those terry pile yarns forming low pile portions in the pattern have pile loops of a length about as long as the height of the high pile portions but are self-restrained or disposed to lie at an incline relative to the base and form the low pile portions.

According to the invention, I have now discovered that when rayon staple fiber yarns are used to form terry loop pile in a woven terry fabric, the usual wet processing and drying treatments to which the fabric are subjected cause the rayon terry loops to lean over and become self-restrained to lie at an incline in a generally common warpwise direction relative to the base and to remain inclined thereafter so that the height of the rayon terry loops is substantially less than the actual length thereof. While cotton terry loops may lean over to some small extent during wet processing and drying treatments, they are not inclined relative to the base to anywhere near the extent to which the rayon ter-ry loops are inclined. Also, it has been determined that rayon staple terry yarns, which are relatively inexpensive, are highly absorbent and have a high luster or brilliance as compared to cotton yarns.

It is therefore another object of this invention to provide a woven terry fabric having a base with terry pile yarns arranged in a predetermined pattern of high and low pile areas on each side of the base, wherein the high pile areas are formed from cotton terry yarns and the lowpile areas are in the form of terry loops formed of rayon terry yarns, with the rayon terry loops being about as long as the height of the high pile areas but being disposed at an incline relative to the base so that the rayon terry loop areas are recessed with respeet to the cotton pile areas. Also, since the high pile areas are formed from cotton terry yarns, the rayon low pile areas have a high luster as compared to the high pile areas to further enhance the appearance of the terry fabric. It has been found that the inclined condition of the rayon terry loops and the high luster thereof also result in unusually clear definition of the high and low pile areas of the terry fabric.

Some of the objects of the invention having been stated, other objects will appear as the description proceeds when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a typical towel embodying the terry fabric of the invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view taken substantially along line 2-2 in FIG. 1 and showing portions of adjacent high and low pile areas of the terry fabric; and

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary warpwise sectional view through the fabric looking at the right-hand side of FIG. 2.

Referring more specifically to the drawings, a towel T embodying the terry fabric of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1 which comprises a woven base 10 (FIG. 3) of ground warp yarns 11 and ground weft yarns 12 with which two sets of terry pile yarns I3, 14

are interwoven in the manner of a conventional terry the form of a three-pick terry weave.

According to the invention, the terry pile yarns l3,

14 are arranged in a predetermined pattern to provide a high-low pile effect on each side of the base, and

wherein the terry yarns 13 form the high pile portions or patterned areas 13a and the terry yarns 14 form the low pile portions or patterned areas 14a projecting from each side of the base 10. The terry yarns 14, which form the low pile areas 14a, have pile loops of a length about as long as the height of the high pile areas, but are self-restrained or disposed to lie at an angle relative to the base 10 so that their outer ends are posi: tioned substantially closer to the base 10 than the outer surfaces of the high pile areas 13a formed of the terry pile yarns l3 regardless of whether the high pile areas are in the form of loops or cut pile tufts.

It is preferred, therefore, that the terry yarns 13 are formed of cotton fibers and that the terry yarns 14 are formed of rayon staple fibers, since it has been determined that both cotton terry yarns and rayon terry yarns are highly absorbent and they have within a very small percentage of about 6 percent of the same shrinkability when the fabric is subjected to conventional wet processing and drying treatments. More in portantly, l have discovered that, when a terry fabric having some loop pile areas of cotton terry yarns and other loop pile areas of rayon terry yarns is subjected to con- I ventional wet processing and drying treatments following the weaving of the same, and which treatmentseffeet a relatively small amount of shrinkage to the terry yarns, this causes the rayon terry loops to lean over and take one. substantially permanent steeply bent configuration so that the rayon terry loops become disposed or self-restrained to lie at an incline in a generally com,- mon warpwise direction relative to the base and so that the height of the rayon terry loops is substantially less than the actual length thereof as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3,

On the other hand, although the cotton terry loops may lean over to some small extent during wet processing and drying treatments, they generally tend to straighten up and stand erect on the base fabric so that they are not inclined relative to the base fabric to anywhere near the extent to which the rayon terry loops are inclined following the wet processing and drying treatments. In fact, upon close inspection of the terry fabric, it was found that, although the rayon terry loops were nearly of the same length following the wet processing and drying treatments as they were when the fabric was woven, the height of the rayon terry loops following the wet processing and drying treatments was about 25 to 40 percent lower than the actual length of the rayon terry loops. Thus, even though the fabric may be woven with all of the terry loops of the cotton terry yarns 13 and the rayon terry yarns 14 being about the same height throughout the terry pile pattern on each side of the base 10, the rayon terry pile areas 14a are recessed substantially relative to the cotton terry pile areas 13a when the fabric is subjected to conventional wet processing and drying treatments.

It is to be noted that the term rayon yarns, as referred to in this application in connection with the terry yarns 14, is used in its normal sense to mean those yarns formed from out staple rayon fibers of regenerated cellulose, such as viscose or cuprammonium. Such rayon yarns are particularly suited for use in forming the low pile patterned areas 14a in the fabric of this invention, since they are relatively inexpensive, they have a high luster or brilliance, especially when the rayon terry yarns are dyed, and they are even more absorbent than cotton yarns. In other words, rayon fibers have a regain of about 1 1.5 16.6 percent at 70 Fahrenheit at 65 percent relative humidity as compared to 7.0 8.5 percent for cotton fibers.

To aid in obtaining clearly defined adjacent patterned areas 13a, 14a of the respective sets of terry yarns 13, 14, it is preferred that the rayon terry yarns are of substantially the same count as the cotton terry yarns and that the number of terry loops per square inch is substantially the same throughout the pattern on both sides of the fabric, as is usually the case in woven terry fabrics, and as is preferred. Two-ply terry yarns are oftentimes used in forming terry yarns because, among other reasons, they stand more erect to be more readily cut by conventional shearing equipment than singles terry yarns in the event that a cut pile surface is desired on either or both sides of the terry fabric. Thus, for purposes of illustration, the terry yarns 13, 14 are shown in the form of two-ply yarns in FIG. 3, although each terry yarn may be composed ofa single strand or more than two strands, if desired. Where a two-ply rayon terry yarn is used, it has been found that, as shown in FIG. 3, the rayon terry loops in areas 14a not only have the permanent steeply bent or inclined configuration mentioned heretofore, but the plies of the rayon terry yarns 14 are opened to some extent, especially at the outer ends of the rayon terry loops, so that adjacent portions of the piles are separated and provide a differentially curled appearance to the plies in each rayon terry loop which further enhances their appearance.

As a non-limiting example, the terry fabric was woven in the manner heretofore described having on opposite sides thereof terry loop areas of the cotton terry yarns 13 and terry loop areas of the rayon terry' yarns 14, with all of the terry loops being of about the same height. All of the terry yarns 13, 14 were of the same count; e.g., No. 22 count, two-ply yarns. All of the ground warp and weft yarns 11, 12 in the base fabric were conventional cotton yarns. As is conventional in weaving some terry fabrics from two different types of yarns, those areas formed of the cotton yarns 13 on one side of the fabric are directly opposite from those areas formed of the rayon yarns 14 on the opposite side of the fabric, and vice versa. Upon removing the terry fabric from the loom, it was subjected to conventional wet processing and drying treatments in which the terry fabric was subjected to at least one liquid treatment at a temperature of about F. During such treatments the fabric may be bleached to produce a white fabric and/or it may be dyed any desired color. In either event, the rayon low pile areas 14a have a high luster and are clearly defined relative to the cotton high pile areas 13a.

It is thus seen that I have provided an improved highly absorbent, high-low terry fabric which is particularly adaptable for use in making towels and which is so constructed that the necessity for blending fibers in order to produce the terry pile yarns is eliminated, there is no need to provide a blend of highly shrinkable fibers with the main or body fibers of either of the types of terry yarns being used so that all of the fibers in the terry fabric may be hydrophilic fibers, and the patterned areas of the terry fabric formed from the rayon terry pile yarns have an aesthetic high luster. Also, it has been determined that the low pile areas formed of the rayon yarn are actually of lesser height than comparable pile areas formed from shrunken pile yarns which include a blend of cellulosic or cotton fibers and highly shrinkable synthetic fibers therein, and it has also been determined that there is a substantially clearer definition of the high and low patterned pile areas in the fabric of this invention than has been obtained heretofore utilizing high shrinkable pile yarns for those terry yarns which form the low pile areas of a high-low terry fabric. Also, from the foregoing description, it is apparent that the improved high-low terry pile fabric of this invention eliminates the need for initially weaving the terry fabric with terry loops of varying heights in order to form high pile areas and low pile areas on either or both sides thereof.

In the drawings and specification, there has been set forth a preferred embodiment of the invention and,

although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only.

That which is claimed is:

1. A woven terryfabric having a base and terry pile yarns arranged thereon in a predetermined pattern to provide a high-low pile effect and wherein those terry pile yarns forming low pile portions in the pattern have pile loops of a length about as long as the height of the high pile portions but are self-restrained to lie at an incline relative to the base and form the low pile portrons.

2. A woven terry fabric comprising a base having thereon terry pile loops all of about the same length and wherein a high-low pile effect is present by certain terry pile loops being self-restrained at an incline relative to said base so that their outer ends are positioned closer to the base of the fabric than the outer ends of the remaining of the pile loops.

3. A woven terry fabric characterized by having all pile loops of about the same length but presenting a high-low pile effect to the fabric, said fabric including a woven base of warp and weft yarns, said base having on each side thereof terry pile loops arranged in a pattern and all of the loops being of about the same length, and wherein some of the loops are formed of rayon terry yarns arranged in groups to form predetermined patterried areas with the rayon terry loops being selfrestrained at an incline relative to said base and forming a recessed low pile effect to the fabric.

4. A terry fabric according to claim 3, wherein the remaining loops in said pattern are formed of cotton terry yarns which are also arranged in groups to form other predetermined patterned areas and wherein the rayon terry loops present a high luster to the patterned areas formed of the rayon terry yarns enhancing the recessed low pile effect of the pattern.

5. A terry fabric according to claim 4, wherein the yarn counts of the rayon terry yarns and the cotton terry yarns are substantially the same and wherein the 'number of terry loops per square inch formed of the rayon terry yarns and the cotton terry yarns is substantially the same throughout said patterned areas. 

2. A woven terry fabric comprising a base having thereon terry pile loops all of about the same length and wherein a high-low pile effect is present by certain terry pile loops being self-restrained at an incline relative to said base so that their outer ends are positioned closer to the base of the fabric than the outer ends of the remaining of the pile loops.
 3. A woven terry fabric characterized by having all pile loops of about the same length but presenting a high-low pile effect to the fabric, said fabric including a woven base of warp and weft yarns, said base having on each side thereof terry pile loops arranged in a pattern and all of the loops being of about the same length, and wherein some of the loops are formed of rayon terry yarns arranged in groups to form predetermined patterned areas with the rayon terry loops being self-restrained at an incline relative to said base and forming a recessed low pile effect to the fabric.
 4. A terry fabric according to claim 3, wherein the remaining loops in said pattern are formed of cotton terry yarns which are also arranged in groups to form other predetermined patterned areas and wherein the rayon terry loOps present a high luster to the patterned areas formed of the rayon terry yarns enhancing the recessed low pile effect of the pattern.
 5. A terry fabric according to claim 4, wherein the yarn counts of the rayon terry yarns and the cotton terry yarns are substantially the same and wherein the number of terry loops per square inch formed of the rayon terry yarns and the cotton terry yarns is substantially the same throughout said patterned areas. 